Mama, I have lots of fun at Aunt Marci's house!

I have the pleasure of watch my 11 month old neice, Eliana, almost once a week while my sister works. As she is getting older we have a lot of fun together. Usually, I go to my sister's house to watch her, but today we came home to my house and boy did we have fun. The morning wasn't so nice so we stayed in played and did Marci's chores around the house (well Marci did anyway) and then after lunch the sun came out. So then we had to check on the tomatoes and I decided to start planting up my hanging baskets. The dirt was just so much fun, take a look.


Do I look nixie enough?

So....this is dirt huh?


Wow, it flies all over the place if I flap my arms!

Oooo...can I eat it?

Addition to our Property

This spring we moved my high tunnel home to our house. For the last 3 years we had it up on a friends farm, but last year I got kind of sick of running back and forth to take care of things. So I decided that having it at our house would be more convenient. So for the 4th year I have tomatoes in the ground already. I planted about 75 tomato plants and this week I am going to plant around 20 pepper plants. I should have the first tomatoes and peppers around the end of June.

Marci hard at work while Neil documents with the camera

Our dog McCormick thinks that this is his new dog house

Easter with the Fellenbaums

We spent Easter Sunday with Neil's family, and really enjoyed a relaxing day of food and family. Michelle and Josh's kids hunted for easter eggs that Neil's brother and I hid. More importantly Easter really felt meaningful to me this year. I think I understood in a new way what Christ did for me by dying on the cross. I have known Christ for a lot of years and I love it when He shows me new things about Himself.




Uncle Neil reading Thomas to Derek

Derek enjoyed being under the evergreens as much as he did hunting eggs

Derek pulling his new wagon around

Josh's daughter Amanda

Garden Spot Marathon

The marathon has come and gone, and I am feeling back to normal. Yes, I did complete the whole 26.2 miles on a very windy day. The course was very beautiful, we ran through a lot of farmland just outside of New Holland. I think my favorite view was near the beginning of the race when we were up on top of a ridge and could look out across the valley. It was really neat to see all the farm land with farm buildings and silos sticking up here and there, I was encouraged by the amount of farms that still do exist in Lancaster Co. Anyway that was a bit of a side track. Many people after asking me how the marathon was have commented "I would never be able to do that" or a similiar comments. There was a point in the race...oh about mile 21 when I wasn't sure if I could do it either...but that is when the mind has to take over and all you do for the last 5 miles is tell yourself that you can do it and you do it one step at a time. I realized at that point that running a marathon really is all mental, otherwise people probably wouldn't do them. I have also been asked if I will run another one...yes if the opportunity arises...but probably not in the next year. I think I would rather do some shorter races and possibly a half marathon. All in all my friend Monica and I did very well and I was glad that we were able to run the whole thing together. Our time was 4h13m58s, which put us at 11th in the women and 2nd in our age group. I have to wonder what our time would have been if it hadn't been quite so windy. Oh and thanks a bunch to my sister Beth who ran the last 5 miles with us...we are very grateful. Here are a few pictures from the day.